By Previnex®
Gatorade. Powerade. Body Armor. These types of sports drinks are advertised as healthy electrolyte replenishers for after a workout. However, typical sports drinks are full of sugar, dyes, and other chemicals. If electrolytes are your concern, there are more natural ways to incorporate them into your diet. Let’s talk about what electrolytes are and their benefits, and better, easily accessible ways to get them into your system.
What Are Electrolytes? What Are Their Benefits?
Electrolytes are key minerals your body needs to function well—like magnesium, sodium, calcium, and potassium—that carry a positive or negative electric charge. They help balance your body’s pH levels, contract muscles, and keep you hydrated.
The benefits of electrolytes far outweigh just a tasty drink—it can enhance your exercise performance, help you sleep better, and reduce your stress. Let’s dig into these:
Exercise
There’s no shortage of commercials showing athletes drinking sports drinks, sweat pouring off of them in perfect beads after a run or basketball game. (Those marketers definitely know their audience). But they don’t typically explain why electrolytes are good for the body, especially post-workout.
When you exercise, you sweat. Obviously. And sweat not only contains sodium, but also magnesium, calcium, and potassium—all electrolytes. So as we sweat, we lose those key minerals that help our bodies function well.
Sleep
Electrolytes are not something we typically think of when it comes to sleeping better. But since magnesium and calcium are two of those key minerals, maintaining healthy levels of electrolytes in our system is actually super beneficial for our sleep! As we sleep, calcium not only helps the brain turn tryptophan into melatonin, but also helps promote REM sleep. Magnesium helps our bodies relax, and one study of 46 elderly adults with insomnia were able to sleep better when given a magnesium supplement.
Stress
Magnesium is essential to reducing stress and anxiety in the body. However, your body does not naturally produce magnesium, so it’s important to supplement it in other ways. This can be done through a high-quality supplement or multivitamin, a powder, or in your diet. A study done in 2017 found that people with anxiety and depression who took a magnesium supplement over the course of 6 weeks saw significant improvement in their symptoms.
How Can I Get Electrolytes Into My System?
It may seem like the only way to get electrolytes into your system is by drinking things like Gatorade. As we’ve talked about, some of the main electrolytes are potassium, calcium, and sodium. There are lots of foods and drinks you can consume—besides electrolyte beverages— to make sure your system stays chock-full of those essential minerals. We’re going to break these options down by mineral:
Potassium
- Coconut Water - One cup of coconut water has approximately 350mg of potassium.
- Bananas - On average, one banana can contain up to 422mg of potassium.
- White Meat & Poultry - 110 grams of turkey has approximately 349mg of potassium.
- Avocado - One avocado contains up to 660mg of potassium.
- Pomegranate Juice - One cup contains 533mg of potassium.
Calcium
- Milk - 100mL of milk contains approximately 199mg of calcium.
- Cheese - One ounce of parmesan cheese has approximately 336mg of calcium.
- Poppy Seeds - One tablespoon of poppy seeds contains 127mg of calcium.
- Yogurt - One cup of yogurt contains approximately 187mg of calcium.
- Almonds - One ounce of almonds contains 75mg of calcium.
Sodium
- Cottage Cheese - A half cup of cottage cheese contains 400mg of sodium.
- Cheese - 100g of processed cheese contains approximately 1400mg of sodium
- Nuts - One ounce of mixed nuts contains around 90mg of sodium
- Olives - Four kalamata olives contain 140mg of sodium.
- Pickles - A one-ounce dill pickle spear contains 241mg of sodium.
See? There are tons of ways to make sure you’re replenishing those essential minerals without sugary drinks. There is a time and place for those—like after a really intense workout. But there are healthier alternatives to the typical electrolyte beverages, you just have to do some research!
Replenish Yourself
Whether you’re working out super hard, feeling sick, or just have a bit of a deficiency, it’s important to make sure you always have good levels of electrolytes in your system. These key minerals help keep your body performing the right way. So stock up on those electrolyte-rich foods, stay hydrated, and stay active.
